mama lou's italian kitchen

🐽 food: my friend and iordered2 dishes- spaghetti seafood olio and salpicao. nothing so special with the salpicao. the pasta though was really delicious! you won't go wrong with this. found out that it's also their best seller.

🍴ambiance: it's a bit squeezy inside. you can opt to sit on their alfresco area.

👫 service: servers need to be a little bit more attentive, but they were nice to us.

💸 price: affordable especially that serving is good for sharing.

i'm so sad to say this, but i was not impressed with mama lou's italian kitchen. i heard a lot of great reviews, and it just wasn't what i expected.

weorderedthe nachos (i do not recommend this); chef's salad (small serving, so simple in appearance and taste, drenched in watered vinaigrette); pescatore with angel hair pasta (bland - too common, nothing special); pizza margherita (more like cheese pizza with a leaf of basil on top).

the service was average. they were friendly, but forget to attend to us (we had to ask more than 3 times for water). i don't blame them though... tonight was really busy. i might give this place another chance. maybe if i'm in the area :)

for me, mama lou's had proven that fine dining does not need to be too expensive at all. well, i turned out to be a fan because the beef dishes that weorderedwere all so tender! pasta was good as well. i highly recommend it to everybody. :)

it was our family's first time dining at mama lou's 2 weeks ago. we eachorderedmains as we didn't know serving size is for sharing. we also had 3 appetizers, from which we only liked the mozzarella sticks. the nachos and onion rings were forgettable. i loved the complimentary bread with the dips. for the mains, we liked the seafood spaghetti olio and truffle risotto. my dad finds his marbled rib eye a bit tough. there were also other pasta dishes and a rice dish. i liked the minty house iced tea but nobody else in my family appreciated it since the mint is really strong.

definitely giving this a 5! 

my experience was great! i love the food, the service, and the ambiance!

weorderedgarlic & cheese (pizza) (love this!) and for me, i had chicken piccata. the price of their mains is a little bit expensive but still worthy of the taste of the food!

will also come back here but this time, with my family!

oh boy did we eat a lot at mama lou’s. last thursday, oliver and i are walking and window shopping at up town center after we fail to get in time for a movie screening. tired and hungry, we decided to eat at mama lou’s because of its good reviews.

we had the following:

↠ poutine with bacon: hot, crispy, yummy, thick-cut fries served with gravy and mozzarella and meaty bacon. it’s so gooey good!

↠ mama lou’s pizza : actually prior to ordering, i had no idea what this is, weorderedit just because there is a “mama lou” on it haha. there are many surprising elements in this pizza. it’s ridiculously thin and crispy, topped with arugula and alfalfa sprouts. and oh, what a surprise to find mango hiding a jamon! as if it is not interesting enough, it even has a balsamic sauce on it. what a weirdly wonderful combination.

↠ the spaghetti seafood olio was a bit disappointing. it lacks that kicking flavor of the sea and herbs. mary grace’s seafood pasta is definitely better.

↠ by the time the the braised short ribs arrived (piping hot), we were already full, but he held on! haha. the meat is tender and almost falling off the bone. the sauce tastes like what my mama used to make at our house (no, she’s not mama lou), i suppose because of the lovely mix of olives and tomato sauce.

overall, it was a wonderful experience. we dined in early so we didn’t have to wait for our seats. the staff are courteous and attentive too. will definitely return.

dined here on a sunday afternoon around 1pm and the place is still full. its nice that they will ask for your number and call you when your table is already available so you dont have to sit and wait. so we shopped for half an hour i guess. serving time is okay. around 15 to 20 minutes. weorderedfrench fries with gravy which was okay, nothing special. mama lous special pizza was good! loved the bacon and mango! tuyo spaghetti and vezuvio were both great. even their iced tea is extraordinary. i don't know if they mixed some herbs in it. smells and taste unique but it's refreshing. this place is a bit pricey but it stands up to its food quality. we had a great experience here!

me and my family celebrated my birthday at this restaurant. we enjoyed our dining experience here, except for the staff because we had to follow-up our additional orders a number of times. we loved their olio pastas. i super liked the spaghetti seafood olio and spaghetti con tuyo filleto. i evenorderedfor takeout because i just cant get enough of the seafood olio. the other food that weorderedwere also very good, except for the lasagna which was too sour for my liking.

weorderedrigatoni pasta, pizza, ceasar salad and truffle pasta. this italian restaurant serves the best truffle pasta! mouth-watering, perfectly cooked and one serving is usually not enough.

i arrived 11:30am andorderedbolognese for dine-in and frutti de mare and quattro formaggi for take out. by 12pm i followed up my bolognese and was given bread as my food is not yet ready. nearly done with my pasta, waiter approached me and told me frutti de mare is not avaliable. wtf?! and to think there were only 3 people dining including me. just terrible.

i waited for an hour and a half just to get my food served. they served the pizza first before the mozzarella appetizer. my other orders took 30 more minutes to get served. iordereda medium rare steak and got a steak which had rare, medium rare, and well done parts. i also asked for salt and pepper, and it took me 4 times just for them to serve it. we got complementary iced tea for the delay of the order. overall, the other dishes they served like the quattro formaggio pizza and the truffle baked mac were nice. what ruined it for us was the poor service. i hope they’re prepared for occasions like valentines next time.

i loved the other stuff on the menu—except for the too salty over sodium black ink pasta. i knew that it is a bit salty since it’s made of squid ink and seafood based. however, the ones i’ve had here was way too much. they might want their customers to experience uti later. when i asked the staff, he said he thought i knew it was salty (but he never offered me at least a lemon to somehow balance its salty taste) and even said i might not know the food i hadorderedwell. a bit rude if you ask me for a staff. i’ve had had a lot of black ink pasta before. they were salty alright, but not too salty like this one at mama lou’s. the menu’s also overrated and too expensive.

went here to celebrate my daughter's birthday. iorderedthe blueberry cheesecake to be served with a candle after dinner. after eating our dinner, i told the waiter to serve the cake. upon serving, there was no candle. they forgot my request and totally spoiled the moment. food aside, their service is deteriorating.

i've been a fan of mama lous ever since, i've always eat there whenever i had a chance. but lately i noticed that the food sometimes not consistent like before. pizza. spinach goat and cheese and half tabarnes is slighty burned on crust.
spaghetti seafood olio- i know it supposed to be oily but not greasy.
italian sausage pomodoro pasta - sometimes tasty, a bit greasy when you dine at 3pm ( don't know why)
poutine- edible, better eat it before the gravy ruin the fries.
grilled porkchop - i tasted the porkchop on ayala mall feliz branch and it taste like heaven, so iorderedit again at up town branch. in up town branch it's hard as a rock.

the staff is friendly as usual.
i will still give high score. 🤗

easily one of my most fave restos! everything weorderedhere tasted like home. the salmon was good and had a fresh-tasting butter sauce. but the real stars of our meal were the salpicao and truffle mac and cheese. ahhh can't wait to have a forkful of that mac and cheese again!